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I don't grasp auto journalists obsession with really long trips. Very few people drive that hardly ever. You fly long distances. If you really want to drive 500 miles, rent a car that once a year. I can count the number of times I've driven more than 250 miles in a day in the last 10 years one hand.

Exactly. They can't seem to grasp that EVs (at this point at least) may not work for every person on earth. If you're a sales person who drives 300-400 miles a day then maybe an EV with a 100 mile range and no DC fast charging sites might not be a good solution...etc. They should focus on the probably 80%+ of the population that (especially for a 2 car household with one EV and one ICE car) could use the EV for a daily commuter to and from work.

I don't grasp auto journalists obsession with really long trips. Very few people drive that hardly ever. You fly long distances. If you really want to drive 500 miles, rent a car that once a year. I can count the number of times I've driven more than 250 miles in a day in the last 10 years one hand.

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If we were discussing electric cars in general or electric commute or city cars like the Leaf or the coming mini-e, then I would understand your comment. However, since we are discussing Tesla we are really discussing drivers cars. This to me implies that suddenly the range and the possibility of extending the range on a nice weekend or week long road trip does actually become a valid and important topic. And the range factor I think Tesla has gotten a fairly good handle on. What is more surprising is their relatively over conservative way of dealing with the re-charge times. This seems to me to be Tesla's singularly biggest obstacle. For Tesla to shut up the nei sayers of this world, this is where they now have to concentrate their research, together with partners such as panasonic.

To say that you should rent a car, which are almost never drivers cars, when you want to go on a nice road trip, is like saying I bought this cool weekend house but it's kinda badly conceived so I rent an apartment instead. That just does not make any sense..........Or?

Exactly. They can't seem to grasp that EVs (at this point at least) may not work for every person on earth. If you're a sales person who drives 300-400 miles a day then maybe an EV with a 100 mile range and no DC fast charging sites might not be a good solution...etc. They should focus on the probably 80%+ of the population that (especially for a 2 car household with one EV and one ICE car) could use the EV for a daily commuter to and from work.

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But the idea should obviously in the end be that we have two EVs in the garage and NO ICEs. Then I would agree that one of these EVs is for comuting and the range has little consequence. but The second one would be for your longer and family oriented outings and weekend trips to grandmas. this is where the driver oriented Tesla comes in and then range and recharge time IS important.

I also don't get the obsession with long trips. I can count on 1 hand the number of times in a year when I drive over 200 miles in one day. And when that happens I would just drive our ICE car (Jetta Sportaswagon- Diesel) which gets over 40mph. The Model S will be fine for me. Its really no different then the family that has a pick up truck and a family sedan. The pick up truck is great but not for a long family trip since it won't hold the whole family. An EV is not right for everybody or every family but for 2 car family it makes sense for millions and millions of people. The problem with many journalists and nay sayers is they focus on the negative.

To say that you should rent a car, which are almost never drivers cars, when you want to go on a nice road trip, is like saying I bought this cool weekend house but it's kinda badly conceived so I rent an apartment instead. That just does not make any sense..........Or?
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I get your point, but the analogy isn't very good. A weekend house is 100% for this special use. A car isn't a 100% special use for long road trips.

The focus should be on how you use the car 99.98% of the time, not the .02% of the time you'd need to go on some road trip. At a 250 mile range, it'll do almost any road trip I care about, such as a trip to the coast. A simple standard plug, left in from the time I get there until I leave (typically at least 24-36 hours if I'm there for a weekend) will typically recharge it enough for the trip back.

It's like complaining that your roadster can't carry a cubic yard of gravel the .02% of the time when you need to go to the landscaping store. It's a total WTF comment. If you that's your criteria, then why did you buy a roadster?

I posted some comments on the blog.. will be interesting to see if they get published

Kevin Sharpe says:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.

From personal experience I can confirm that it’s possible to charge my Tesla Roadster in 3.5 hours using a HPC. Therefore, I have no reason to believe that the Model S battery, at roughly twice the capacity, will take more than 8 hours when charged at 75 Amp.

I would suggest that the only time anyone requires charging in less than 8 hours, is on an extended 300+ mile road trip. This requirement will be easily catered for by using DC fast charge stations that will appear at key locations.

With regards to your comments that a 240V 75 Amp ‘charger’ “could require a change of service” I agree this is true in some locations. However, 200 Amp and 400 Amp household supplies are not at all uncommon in the US especially in more modern neighbourhoods.

My comment is waiting moderation. What a strange article. He's obsessed with the 'pad' thinking it's added on top of the battery pack size or something. He's also making up recharging times. If he doesn't approve my post:

Paul: I don’t understand the ‘pad’ you keep talking about. Yes, the Roadster and likely the Model S will protect the top and bottom 10% (20% total) of the battery pack from charging and being discharged respectively. That figure is included in the Roadster’s 53kWh, not added on top of that. If the 300 mile Model S does have a 100kWh pack, the ‘pad’ would be included in that so a standard charge would have access to the middle 80kWh. If you charge in Range mode in the Roadster, you then have access to the ‘pad’ and the entire 53kWh.
Why don’t you accept real numbers from actual owners? The Roadster can indeed go from empty to full in 3.5 hours, I’ve seen it. Why would the 300 mile Model S take 14 hours “at best”? Where do you get these numbers? Like the Roadster, the number they quote for range is when the car is charged in Range mode so there is no pad. In standard mode, which is what you use a large majority of the time, it’s about 80% that number.
Where did you get your figure that the 300 mile Model S would take a couple of hours on a level 3 charger?
If your breaker box is in your garage, the adding a 240V circuit is a minimal cost given the cost of the Model S, maybe a few hundred dollars at most. I had 2 240V 50A circuits installed in my garage and it didn’t cost that much.
People pretty much charge up at home where charging a 300 mile pack in 5-10 hours overnight wouldn’t be a problem for most people. If you’re buying a car like this, it doesn’t make any sense to charge on a 110V outlet. If that’s all someone is willing to do, I wouldn’t recommend they get the car then. Until more DC fast chargers come on line, then you’re right, maybe EVs aren’t the best road cars for people who like to drive 600 miles in a day. If that’s you, don’t buy an EV until fast charging stations are available on your route or they have a 600 mile pack in a few years.

Very often with my wife and I we tend to drive about 400-450 miles per day.
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So for me range is important and since both the Teslas are drivers cars I think my case is not alone.
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You're not alone, but I'd say you're in a very small minority of drivers. If that's really your usage profile, then I think you made a mistake getting an EV car. I think we're probably at least a decade or two away from EV cars having high powered recharge stations anywhere near as prevalent as current gas stations.

Edit: moreover, I don't think the financial incentive to build charging stations is really there yet. It's a chicken and egg issue. There are few EVs, so no demand. We don't need charging stations much in a city as EV owners charge up at home, unlike gas which you can't tank up at home so stations had to be built. There has to reach a critical mass of EVs on the road such that the minority of drivers that want to take road trips make opening up high powered charging stations financially viable. That's what I meant by a decade or two away. I think it'll take that long to reach that point.

I think he's stuck on this padding idea. Tesla really should advertise mileage in standard mode or give both standard and range mode numbers. That seems to have a lot of these journalists confused. He keeps taking the 300 mile range and then assuming that's the middle 80% of the battery pack. He then adds on another 20% to the battery pack size since Tesla must be hiding that from the customer somewhere. His math has been corrected multiple times by people like dpeilow who know a lot more about this than I do but he doesn't seem to want to believe the numbers.

For those of you that don't understand the "pad" thing I do. It is wrong but I do. He is saying that the battery will be 85-95 KwH. So the last 10 Kwh is padding. And if you go with the larger size cells it will go to 97Kwh which is 2 more "pad" And he is saying that the 12 Kwh "extra" will take more time to charge.